The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for sending messages from a MMS (multimedia messaging service) system, and in particular, for sending e-mails, fax, SMS, etc., from a subscriber device in the MMS system to a subscriber device in a further system.
Standards have been defined or proposed for the sending of messages between subscriber devices that are linked into an MMS (multimedia messaging service) network. According to these standards, the messages to be sent by a subscriber device are sent in a specified form and have predefined content categories. The proposed standards and the details relating to said standards are published in, for example, “3G TS 23.140 Version 4.1.0, Release 4; Third Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Terminals; Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS); Functional Description; Stage 2” and “WAP 209 MMS Encapsulation; Wireless Application Protocol; WAP Multimedia Messaging Service; Message Encapsulation; MMS Proposed SCD 1.0”.
The content of such a message is, for example, an e-mail, a fax, a SMS (short message service) text message, a text file, a graphics file, an audio file, a video file or similar message. A subscriber device in this case is, for example, a WAP-enabled (wireless application protocol) mobile radio device or a UMTS mobile radio device. When a message is sent, the message is preceded by a header or header field that contains, for example, the information elements shown in Table 1 (see below) (excluding the information element as described below in accordance with the present disclosure).
In the case of this message transfer between the subscriber devices, however, it is assumed that both the sender-side subscriber device and the recipient-side subscriber device either belong to the same MMS network or that both devices are linked into different MMS networks. Therefore an exchange of messages can only occur if both subscriber devices are MMS-enabled and are linked into an MMS-enabled network or communication system.
The present disclosure, therefore, addresses the problem of providing a method for transferring a message from a MMS system and a device therefor, which method and device allow the message to be forwarded to a subscriber device that is outside a MMS system.